New York City teacher job performance rankings, 2007-2008

These are job performance ratings of about 17,600 New York City public school teachers prepared by the city Department of Education. Click on a teacher's name for more details about the rating. When searching for a school, be sure to add periods after the abbreviations for I.S. and P.S.

The ratings are based in part on progress students showed on standardized tests and cover the 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, with about 12,000 teachers evaluated in any one year. The 2007-2008 ratings were compiled by a different company and are not entirely comparable to ratings from other years.

The evaluations are for English and math teachers in grades 4-8. Some teachers were not rated in all three years. The teachers have seen their reports.

The scores are from 0 to 99, with 99 being the highest, and indicate how much value teachers add to student performance. The scores were computed by measuring how much the teachers' student test scores exceeded or fell short of expectations based on demographics and prior performance.

The margin of error indicates the range of where the score could be. Scores below the fifth percentile are considered low; between the fifth and 25th percentile they are below average; from the 25th-75th percentile they are average. Between the 75th-95th percentile they are above average, and above the 95th percentile they are high.

The city Education Department acknowledges the data is flawed. Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said Feb. 23 that the reports "were never intended to be made public or to be used in isolation." Critics point to high margins of error -- as much as 53 percentage points on English tests and 35 percentage points on math tests -- and factual mistakes and omissions. In addition, the ratings are based on small amounts of statistical data.

If you are a New York City schoolteacher who wants to challenge or discuss your report, please email Newsday at web@newsday.com from your @schools.nyc.gov email address and attach the report.

The United Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit to block release of the ratings, arguing it was a violation of teachers' privacy rights and the records contained many inaccuracies. A judge ruled the union had not shown the city's decision to make the names public was "arbitrary and capricious," and the union's appeals were unsuccessful.
The Education Department released the ratings Feb. 24 under a court order after several news organizations sued for access to the records under the Freedom of Information Law. Newsday was not part of that lawsuit.